There are several pouched laundry active dispensing devices available commercially which are added to the laundry for the wash/or rinse period(s) of an automatic clothes washing machine.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,026,131, Dugger et al., issued May 31, 1977, incorporated herein by reference, discloses an apparatus for dispensing a laundry additive into an automatic washing machine at the rinse cycle. This reference does not address the problem of dispensing a detergent in the wash cycle.
The problems associated with some reusable "free-body" type dispensers are that they are messy to fill, i.e., the particular laundry additive has to be manually handled. Some are cumbersome to use, and subject to clogging. Some are limited only to the use of a laundry additive in liquid form.
Another type of dispenser is one that is built into the washing machine itself as part of the central agitating post wherein the top of the post is in the form of a cup to which a liquid laundry additive can be added. The centrifugal force obtained by the spin of the agitating post during the rinse cycle or spin cycle causes the liquid additive to emerge whereby the rinse water is enabled to flush out the additive into the laundry. Not only is this type of apparatus cumbersome, but it also causes exposure of the additives to the human hands, and tends to leave a residue in the aforementioned cup due to the lack of efficient flushing of the additive into the laundry. Moreover, this type of apparatus is not designed for wash water actives and prohibits the use of solids, which would not flow as evenly as a liquid.
Another type of a built-in dispenser system utilizes a solenoid valve and a gravity feed. Again, it is difficult to dispense solids and any liquid material which has a tendency to gel, since it tends to clog the valve or the tubing used. More importantly, however, all of the foregoing dispensers require frequent refilling (as often as every wash), which can be untidy and inconvenient, and requires intimate handling of materials which may be irritating to the skin, eyes, mucous membranes, and other parts of the body.
A popular dispenser for introducing laundry actives into the wash water in automatic washers is a free-bodied pouch dispenser, e.g., the ones disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,348,293, Clarke et al., issued Sept. 7, 1982, and commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,740,326 Hortel et al., issued Apr. 26, 1988, both incorporated herein by reference. Dissolution of a paste or granular detergent for such dispensers can be a problem, particularly in heavily loaded washes when the pouch is trapped in the load. Accordingly, a need has arisen to provide a device that will dispense the detergent in an effective and simple manner for complete dissolution in extra large loads.